Daily Freeman Life Editor Ivan Lajara talks about journalism, living in the Hudson Valley, language, the Web, cats and even politics. But he shouldn't.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Happy trees everywhere

It's been a breathtaking season so far, and the analog world is telling you to turn your things off, and look up. Look up before you miss it.
The expansive vastness can't be captured with a screen, even though we keep trying to wrap the world in the palm of our hands.

The sun also sets

The future was here the other day, and there were many a hot take about what we've accomplished and what we didn't and all that fun stuff. It was a neat collective exercise, like a societal self-evaluation.
What grade would you give to society today?Read more »

DFM chat on journalistic applications for virtual reality

Journalists, members of Digital First Media, sometimes students who for some reason are told to do this and the public are large are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat Wednesday at noon, Eastern Time to talk about all things journalism.

Today is #BacktotheFutureDay and we are talking about virtual reality applications in journalism! Did you know you can already create some content for it? But should you? And what kind of content can journalists create that can further journalistic goals? Or is it just a gimmick? What are the ethical implications of virtual reality? Bring your Google Cardboard viewer, your ideas, links and your #realtalk.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.Read more »

How to create a virtual reality 3-D panorama with your phone for Google Cardboard, for free

I'm sharing this 'tutorial' in the hopes of improving it with your input and because I googled this very thing and I couldn't quite find what I needed, so I'm trying to figure it out.

The concept is simple. Panorama and 3-D apps have been around for a while. With the advent of Google Cardboard, a lot of these images can now be seen in virtual reality. The idea then is to construct an image and making it available for others to see as panoramas, but mostly in virtual reality. The challenge is to do it for free. Sure, it'd be nice to have a 3-D rig with 16 GoPro cameras for 3-D video, but lol newsroom budgets.

DFM chat on fair use and copyrights

Journalists, members of Digital First Media, sometimes students who for some reason are told to do this and the public are large are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat Wednesday at noon, Eastern Time to talk about all things journalism.

Today we are talking about fair use and copyrights in the wake of Twitter suspending Deadspin and Sbnationgifs for posting gifs of NFL plays. Was that right? Was it ethical? What about reposting and embedding? It's going to get murky. Bring your #realtalk hoses, links and gifs!

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Fall is here, hear the yell

The O+ Festival took place this weekend, along with the Forsyth Fall Festival and the Italian Festival, and that was just in Kingston.
The greater Hudson Valley and the Catskills, meanwhile, are having their own fall colors festival
and admission is free.The colors are here, and they are all around you.
No Instagram filters are needed.

Can you answer these Hudson Valley questions, or are you a terrorist?

Every so often, an entertainment ranking in the form of a listicle that mentions the Hudson Valley or the Catskills is created by a ~content~ producer.
These articles seem to be created for the purpose of simply being passed around on Facebook, and for virality’s sake.
The latest is a ranking that puts Kingston as the No. 1 drunkest city in New York State, by reputable news organization Road Snacks and using criteria that is totally irrelevant if you read the article’s summary graph: “This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as info-tainment. Don’t freak out.”

WE ARE FREAKING OUT!

The criteria — tweets, geography, some random numbers (divorce rate? really?) — gives the writers a guide to pretty much do anything (and you can do it for any state!)
Further, change the hashtags and you’ll get different results, so you can even tailor stuff to get what you want.
But it doesn’t really matter, because it’s created, really, simply for clicks.

Here's my twist.
I'm not here to tell you not to click.
Click all the things. It's your time. Enjoy it.

So to make it a bit more entertaining (and maybe throw in a little news?) I made this, just for you.

DFM chat on how to ethically gather news through social media

Journalists, members of Digital First Media (maybe? Hello?) and members of the public are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat Wednesday at noon, Eastern Time.

Today we are talking about how to ethically gather news through social media, especially during breaking news. But wait! How do you even know it's true? How do you approach using user-generated content?

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

O+RLY?

The O+ Festival in Kingston is just around the corner and the signs are literally everywhere. Keep an eye on six locations as the festival approaches. It takes place in Kingston Oct. 9 to 11, but you can get your blood going with the murals that you'll see cropping around the city.

The murals are curated by Baltimore-based muralist Gaia, and I'm pretty sure you've noticed his Artemis in Uptown from two years ago at the back of BSP, where the Woodstock Film Festival Maverick Awards ceremony took place Saturday. Don't say nothing happens in Kingston.

The locations are the Seven21 Media Center on Broadway, Barcone's Music, also on Broadway (by the underpass) in Midtown and Keegan Ales on St. James Street.
Also be on the lookout for a story about Keegans' bees soon. I'm just writing that so I can post this: